Lady Elgin Bow

3D ModelNoAI

The 252 ft sidewheel palatial steamer Lady Elgin was built in 1851 in Buffalo, NY. This elegant ship started its career transporting passengers between Buffalo and Chicago then Chicago to other Great Lakes ports and eventually it operated mostly on Lake Michigan. On September 8, 1860, in a stormy night-time gale the Lady Elgin was rammed by a poorly lit lumber schooner Augusta. Despite the valiant efforts of it crew, the ship sank in twenty minutes killing over 300 passengers and crew while only 98 survived the sinking. The wreck tragedy was the greatest loss of life in an open water sinking in the history of the Great Lakes. Several changes in safety regulations were made following the disaster. The wreck or better said wreckage covers acres of Lake Michigan bottom of which the two major wreck sites were photographed for the two models by Andrew Goodman on two DPV dives yielding 3,084 30-megapixel images and two models.